Not even the best innovation team can escape bad systems. Without looking at your systems, innovation might just get suffocated. Halloween is full of frightful costumes, decorations, and performances but few things are more terrifying for innovators than systems that strangle our best efforts. What’s even scarier is that these systems might be living among …
Innovation definitions can sometimes create more confusion than clarity. Looking at what it is and does can change that. Innovation might be one of the most confusing, mis-characterized words in business, government, and social enterprises. It doesn’t have to be. If we leave aside all the buzzwords, models, and hype, innovation can be described in …
As long as there have been people, there’s been education. The goal of learning remains, while the methods are changing. The way education and training is delivered has changed dramatically in the past 20 years moving from mostly face-to-face, classroom-based models to ones that might include an online component or be digital altogether. Some new …
Failure deals in absolutes while learning is about discovering possibility. Focusing on the former often leads us to miss the latter. Failure. It’s an emotionally laden word and also a big part of innovation work. Lately, the term failure is having a moment — it’s even got its own toy to help people learn how …
System maps pack a lot of information on a page. A simple, cost-effective approach can make this resource accessible. System maps can be daunting. After all, they are maps of the entire system, right? Well, yes and no. A simple technique called sketch mapping — which is literally about sketching your system as you see …
Our mental health and well-being affect our work above everything. Taking care of ourselves is not an option; it’s essential. Today is World Mental Health Day. Mental health and well-being is as important to innovation work as anything else. Our state of mind and that of our co-workers, colleagues, partners, and community affects our social …
The opportunity to teach is a chance to influence others. Here’s some tips and tricks to make that moment better. Today we share some recent tips included in the latest Censemaking Innovation Newsletter on a big topic: presenting. Presentations are not just about informing people, they are a gift: a chance to teach others and …
Innovation is often portrayed as dramatic, disruptive processes and outcomes. That perception might be keeping us from making real transformations. We need to talk about innovation differently if we want to make it accessible, practical, achievable, and transformative. Much of the current discourse is not helping us get there. Innovation’s PR issue Innovation is a …
Teams are complicated beasts and require special care and attention. New research shows how to care for teams and ourselves. If you are working on an innovation or service design, chances are very likely you are working on or with a team. While you might not have a uniform, mascot, or supporters section waving flags, …
How do we design for attention in a distracted world? Nir Eyal has some answers to provide the focus we need. Behavioural designer Nir Eyal has spent the last decade looking at how we can draw attention. His first book, Hooked, was all about how to capture attention and keep people engaged. Suffice to say, …
